With the use of any form of electrical appliance, there is a need to electrically insulate conductors. With the push to continuously reduce the size and to streamline all electrical and electronic systems there is a corresponding need to find better and more compact insulators and insulation systems.
Good electrical insulators, by their very nature, also tend to be good thermal insulators, which is undesirable. Thermal insulating behavior, particularly for air-cooled electrical equipment and components, reduces the efficiency and durability of the components as well as the equipment as a whole. It is desirable to produce electrical insulation systems having maximum electrical insulation and minimal thermal insulation characteristics.
Though many factors affect the art of electrical insulation, the field would benefit even more from the ability to transfer heat, without reducing other desired physical characteristics of the insulators. What is needed is improved electrical insulation materials that have a thermal conductivity higher than that of conventional materials, but that does not compromise the electrical insulation and other performance factors including structural integrity.
Electrical insulation often appears in the form of tapes, which themselves have various layers. Common to these types of tapes is a paper layer that is bonded at an interface to a fiber layer, both layers tending to be impregnated with a resin. The paper layer will be composed of materials that are highly electrically insulating, such as mica. Improvements to mica tapes include catalyzed mica tapes as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,103,882. If the thermal conductivity of the paper, independent from or in conjunction with its use in a tape, can be improved then an electrical system will see a marked improvement. Other problems with the prior art also exist, some of which will be apparent upon further reading.